Lebanese businessman Qasim Taj Eddin arrived in Beirut on Wednesday, after his release in the United States after a three-year detention, after he was accused of "financing Hezbollah".
In a press release, the Tajuddin family said that Qassem’s return was made by a humanitarian petition filed by his lawyers before the Federal Court in Washington, based on the American law that allows the release of those facing - because of his age - the threat of the complications of the Corona virus, and spent an important part of his sentence, and does not constitute Threat to society.
The statement said that Taj al-Din "is not an American citizen, but his return to Beirut was associated with complicated mechanisms because of his legal status and the current travel conditions that contributed to delaying the return."
He continued, "There was a plane that took him from the United States to Lebanon. I arrived in Beirut this morning (Wednesday)."
On May 28, a federal judge in Washington approved an urgent "resting" request by Qasim Taj al-Din, because he suffers from "serious health problems" that make him vulnerable to infection with the Corona virus, two years before the end of his 5-year prison sentence.
And American newspapers at the time quoted judicial documents stating that the reason for the release was due to Taj El Din’s suffering from a health crisis and the risk of developing corona.
But other press reports speculated that the release of Taj al-Din was part of a deal whereby Amer al-Fakhouri, an Israeli agent with dual US and Lebanese citizenship, was released two months ago from Beirut. The Lebanese authorities have not formally commented on these speculations.
In 2017, Moroccan authorities arrested Tajuddin, 64, under an international memorandum, and extradited him to the United States, eight years after his name was included in the list of international terrorists.
Taj El-Din then faced a 5-year prison sentence, after his conviction for "pumping millions of dollars into the accounts of the Lebanese Hezbollah, and crimes related to money laundering."
The Lebanese "Hezbollah" is on the American "terrorism list", and it is classified as a "terrorist organization" in several western and Gulf countries.